September 10, 2010

CTA Television Ad Exposes How Meg Whitman’s Plan Further Cripples Public Education

BURLINGAME – The California Teachers Association today launched a statewide television ad targeting Meg Whitman’s state budget plan, which would continue the cutbacks that are crippling our neighborhood schools and students.

The former eBay CEO and candidate for governor’s proposals for more cuts come on top of the $17 billion in state budget cuts that have been made to public schools over the past two years. Those cuts resulted in 30,000 teacher layoffs, significant increases in class sizes and the elimination of arts, music, physical education and other programs in schools across the state.

“California’s future depends on a world-class education system, and that future is impossible under Meg Whitman’s proposals to further cut state spending,” says David A. Sanchez, president of the 325,000-member CTA. “Whitman’s plan absolutely moves our students, our public schools and our state in the wrong direction.”

Meg Whitman’s plan for solving the state budget deficit calls for another $15 billion in budget cuts. And since public education is about half of the state budget and received over 50 percent of the cuts in the last two years, billions more in cuts to the state budget likely would mean billions more in cuts to public education. Cutting another $7 billion from education would be the same as laying off another 100,000 educators or increasing class sizes by 33 percent, which means squeezing more students into already overcrowded classrooms, or even deeper cuts to arts and music programs, denying our students a well-rounded education.

“Tell Meg Whitman that cutting education to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy is wrong for our schools and California’s future,” the ad concludes.

The 30-second advertisement will air statewide. Watch the spot here. A copy of the script is below.

SCRIPT:

If OUR future starts here...

Should California continue the cutbacks that are crippling our classrooms?